Monthly Archives: March 2026

Tuesday, 2nd Week of Lent

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Lent 1


“Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

     Last week’s lenten readings were centered on prayer, this week’s readings, from Matthew and Luke, are about mercy. They wrote with a particular audience in mind. Both evangelists describe who Jesus is and what he taught, but each does it with an eye to his own time and place.

Matthew’s gospel, for example, was written for Jewish Christians who were living uneasily among their fellow Jews, possibly in Syria or Palestine, after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

The synagogues Matthew describes in today’s gospel are the synagogues of his time rather than the Galilean synagogues of Jesus’ day. They’re now in the hands of Jewish leaders trying to salvage Judaism after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. 

The current teachers “on the chair of Moses” are honored in Jewish society and on the streets, because they’re keeping Judaism alive. Jews are living together, praying in their synagogues and keeping their traditions in a new way, replacing the former discipline of the temple in Jerusalem. 

Matthew’s gospel indicates the followers of Jesus are unwelcome, and so must be loyal to their teacher, even if he’s not recognized. He’s not a synagogue leader. He called himself a servant of all. He doesn’t have power in a synagogue; he has servant power.

In this week of stories about mercy Matthew’s gospel is hard on the Jewish society of his day, while Luke introduces Jesus’ strong teaching on mercy: .“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you. “

Luke’s parable of the Prodigal Son, which comes at the end of this week, is the story of a Father who loves his two sons. Can it be applied to the situation Matthew describes in our readings this week?

We’re living today in a highly partisan society. Can it also be applied to our situation now, when mercy can be forgotten in our war of words and actions?

Lord,
lead me away from temptations of self-importance,
as if my ideas, my vision, my convenience matter most.
You came to serve and not to be served.
Show me how to wish for what’s best for others
and save me from being a know-it-all.
Show me my faults,
and then take them away.

Monday, 2nd Week of Lent: Be Merciful

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Jesus said to his disciples:”Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,will be poured into your lap. For the measure you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Lk 6,36-38

We are called to be merciful this 2nd week of Lent. Last week’s readings were a basic catechesis on prayer, centered around the Our Father from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. In this week’s gospel readings, mostly from Luke’s Sermon on the Plain, call us to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” 

“Just as your Father is merciful.” God’s mercy is expressed in Luke’s beautiful story of the Prodigal Son, read this Saturday. The father of the prodigal son neither judges nor condemns his son. He takes nothing away from him. Instead, he calls for a bountiful feast. “Bring a robe–the best one–and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.”

God’s mercy is like that, surprising, boundless, unmeasured.God is merciful to our world.

Daniel, the Jewish exile in Babylon sees the merciful hand of God even there, in the lion’s den. We read his story in our first reading.

“Great and awesome God,” Daniel prays, “we have been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.”

Daniel is a voice for God’s mercy in the lion’s den. That could be our world today, a lion’s den, with its wars and violence. Yet, God calls for mercy even now. Impossible? Yes, impossible for us, but not for God.

Rubens, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, National Gallery, Washington

Daniel is a figure of Jesus who comes to our poor world, a lion’s den. . He brings mercy. .

“Be merciful, just as your Heavenly Father is merciful.”

Lord, great and awesome God, teach me to be merciful as you are, for your mercy brings hope to me and to the world I live in. Amen